(a) Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic surveillance system in a communication network and a method thereof, and more particularly, to a system that provides retained data handover between a communication service provider and a law enforcement agency.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Electronic surveillance is a technique by which a communication network provider or a communication network service provider provides subscriber-related information, such as access information on a specific subscriber and telephone call information, when a law enforcement agency legally requests communication electronic surveillance (including audio and data).
Such electronic surveillance is different from the conventional communication system that uses a simple wire tapping structure. Therefore, with the steady development of network technology, the conventional wire tapping device that has been independently operated by the law enforcement agency cannot be efficiently used. These days there is a need for dealing with various crimes, on a real-time basis, that may harm public safety such as terrorism, e-commerce crime, and hacking. Therefore, a new communication electronic surveillance system that employs a normalized standard and structure is required to prevent illegal interception.
In the U.S., in a wired/wireless communication system, electronic surveillance is achieved based on the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) passed by the U.S. Congress in 1994. Under the CALEA, all communication providers or communication device manufacturers have to respond to a legal electronic surveillance request of a law enforcement agency and have to conform to the standard. In Europe, the Europe Parliament properly uses details on cyber-crime in consideration of the situation of each country. A lawful interception (hereinafter referred to as “L.I.”) sector within the European Telecommunication Standard Institute (ETSI) enacts a communication electronic surveillance standard suitable for European telecommunication systems.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a general L.I. system used in a standardization organization.
Referring to FIG. 1, the general L.I. system may be roughly classified into two parts, as shown in FIG. 1, which are a communication service provider that provides various communication services and a law enforcement agency (LEA).
The general L.I. system includes five small modules. An L.I. administration function, a mediation device, and a collection function are provided specifically only for electronic surveillance. An intercepting control element (ICE) and an intercepting network element (INE) are functions that have to be additionally installed in the conventional communication equipment.
The mediation device efficiently deals with each interface for various communication systems and various LEAs.
The operation of the general L.I. system will now be described.
First, an LEA requests a communication service provider to perform electronic surveillance on a specific subscriber. Then, the L.I. administration function allows a command for performing electronic surveillance to be transmitted to the ICE and the INE via the mediation device.
Next, the ICE collects intercept related information (IRI), that is, subscriber information such as subscriber access information, subscriber identification (ID), subscriber access time, and access information of a second subscriber who is communicating with the first subscriber. The INE collects communication content (CC) communicated by the subscriber in practice.
Next, the communication service provider transmits the subscriber information and the CC respectively collected by the ICE and the INE to the collection function via the mediation device. The LEA that receives the information analyzes the information to perform law enforcement.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a handover structure of the conventional retained data.
Retained data is electronic surveillance information on a specific subscriber provided by communication service providers at the request of the LEA. The communication service providers are obligated to store the retained data for a specific period of time even after the retained data is transmitted to the LEA so that the stored retained data is retransmitted immediately after the LEA requests the retained data.
At present, the requirement and standard related to the retained data handover are under deliberation by the L.I. group within the ETSI, and the standard is expected to be standardized at some point.
Referring to FIG. 2, an LEA 250 requests a communication service provider 210 to send electronic surveillance information on a specific subscriber through a handover interface A (HI-A). Then, the communication service provider 210 responds to the request through the HI-A interface and provides the electronic surveillance information to the LEA 250 through a handover interface B (HI-B).
Here, the HI-A interface is a standard in association with a procedure in which the LEA 250 requests the communication service provider 210 to send the communication electronic surveillance information, and the communication service provider 210 responds to the request. The HI-B is a standard in association with a procedure in which the electronic surveillance information requested by the LEA 250 is transmitted from a database that stores the electronic surveillance information to the LEA 250.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating a handover structure of retained data between a plurality of communication service providers and an LEA.
Referring to FIG. 3, the LEA requests the plurality of communication service providers to send electronic surveillance information on a subscriber. After receiving the request, the plurality of communication service providers each provide electronic surveillance information to the LEA.
This method has a problem in that a communication service provider has to pay for additional costs since a large amount of information has to be stored, preserved, and managed for a specific time period at the expense of the communication service provider.
In addition, since the plurality of communication service providers each manage the subscriber electronic surveillance information, efficiency of surveillance information management deteriorates.
In addition, small-sized communication providers or Internet service providers (ISPs) may not have such equipment. In this case, a communication service business may face a restriction, which may result in severe opposition of the small-sized communication providers.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.